Letter: We must protect environment for future

For Wisconsin hunters and anglers an abundance of fish and game are considered our birthright. But forest and streams teeming with bass, trout, ducks and deer don't just happen by accident.

For more than 125 years, countless individuals and organizations have lead the nation in wildlife conservation. In one year more than 2 million sportsmen and women in Wisconsin contributed over $2.9 billion in revenue.

This is all being threatened. The science has confirmed it. If we don't take decisive action now to reduce carbon pollution, in the lifetime of a child born today, one-third of all wildlife species will be at risk of extinction. Our wildlife and the economy that depends on it are at risk from climate change.

Carbon pollution from coal burning power plants, refineries, and vehicles is contributing to worldwide climate change. We already have begun to experience the habitat destroying effects of climate change through higher annual average temperatures, increased extreme weather events, droughts, warming lakes and streams, forest disease and pest outbreaks. It is time for sportsmen and all responsible citizens to do their duty to save our wildlife heritage.

We have a choice to act now or let this heritage slip away. Please write your legislators urging them to support a bill that puts a fee on carbon fuels. This would reflect their true cost to our wildlife heritage and economy. The bill would return the money to the American people to offset the economic impacts and increased energy cost, protecting lower income citizens because the refunds would match or exceed increased energy cost. We need to protect business from unfair competition from other countries using border taxes and credits. Such legislation would encourage energy conservation and renewable energy resources.

We already have made great strides in our community, through recycling, increased energy conservation in our homes and schools, growth in locally produced products and renewable energy businesses. Let's build on this success to win the challenge before us.

Bill Seybold

Plover

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Letter: We must protect environment for future

For Wisconsin hunters and anglers an abundance of fish and game are considered our birthright. But forest and streams teeming with bass, trout, ducks and deer don't just happen by accident.

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